The present invention relates to a method of transferring an image onto a fabric.
The art and craft of creating various items from fabrics, including appliques has been popular for hundreds of years. An applique is a decoration or ornament formed by cutting pieces of one or more materials and applying them to the surface of another. In this way, an unlimited variety of colorful scenes can be created from simple floral designs to complex scenes containing a multitude of characters. Many other crafts also utilize fabrics, such as fabric painting, monogramming, stenciling, embroidering, cross stitching, needle point, doll and toy making, and quilt and pillow patchwork. Of course, fabrics are also used for the production of clothing.
The most common method of creating an applique begins with the overall design of the scene to be created. The scene will be a composite of various shapes, most of which will be formed from different fabrics. Each of these shapes will be cut from a chosen fabric and sewn in place on a background material. The fabrics may be woven or non-woven and may consist of natural fibers such as cotton, wool and linen, and artificial fibers such as nylon, polyester or rayon, as well as blends and mixtures of such fibers.
One of the most difficult steps in the creation of the applique is the creation of an outline of the desired shape on the fabric to be cut. Frequently, an outline is simply drawin by hand on the fabric and then the fabric is cut around the outline to produce the needed fabric piece. This can be rather difficult, however, since the outlines can be quite complex. When creating a scene with many fabric pieces, it is also desirable that the pieces be formed with very specific dimensions since they must be sewn together to form the final scene.
When creating items other than appliques, the steps are basically the same, that being that each shape or piece must be cut and sewn in place. In creating these items, it is also desirable that the pieces be formed with very specific dimensions since they must be sewn together to form the final project. The tendency for the paper pattern to slip or move during the cutting process, thus ruining fabric and causing extra work or having the pieces not fit exactly is a disadvantage.
The most common method of creating designs for fabic painting, embroidering, and monogramming is to trace the design. Then using carbon or graphite paper, transfer the design to the fabric. This is very time consuming and rather messy as the carbon or graphite can rub off on the fabric. Another method of transferring designs to fabric for embroidery or monogramming is with iron-on transfers which tend to be hard to cover with thread and are difficult, even impossible, to remove after the project is finished.
A typical method of creating designs for cross stitch and needle point is to count the actual thread count in the background fabric and work the design by counting each thread to match a specific color area. This is very time consuming and it is very easy to make mistakes or get off center or out of line.
In order to avoid the aforementioned difficulties with drawing the shape outline by hand, tracing the outline or using iron-ons, several methods have been developed. One widely used method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,964 to Warren, and involves copying the original pattern with a standard photocopying machine thus producing a paper copy and cutting each of the desired shapes from the photocopied pattern. Next, each of the paper shapes is joined to the appropriate fabric by straight pins or some other method and the fabric is cut along the edge of the paper to produce a fabric piece with approximately the same dimensions as the original shape. Although this method is an improvement over the hand drawing method, there are several disadvantages, including the tendency for the paper to slip or move during the cutting process, thus ruining the fabric and the extra work involved in producing the photocopy, cutting the paper, attaching the paper to the fabric and removing the paper from the fabric after cutting.